The University of South Alabama’s new on-campus football stadium, Hancock Whitney Stadium, was built to hold more than 25,000 fans. But as the university finalizes its plans for the 2020 football season, athletic officials say fewer than 10,000 spectators may be allowed inside for home games because of pandemic-related restrictions.
South Alabama Athletic Director Joel Erdmann said the department is preparing for the possibility that stadium capacity will be limited to as little as 25 percent of normal seating this fall, a reduction that could cost the athletic program roughly $2 million in revenue for the season.
“The ticket revenue, the walk-up sales revenue, and the parking revenue really start to decrease,” Erdmann said of the financial impact a reduced-capacity season would have on the department’s budget.
The Jaguars are scheduled to christen the new stadium’s playing surface on September 26 against the University of Alabama at Birmingham, a matchup that will take place under significantly altered circumstances compared to what university officials had originally envisioned for the long-awaited venue’s debut.
Several of the season’s marquee matchups have either been canceled outright or will now be played in front of sharply limited crowds because of the coronavirus pandemic. Erdmann pointed to a trio of games that had been expected to draw sellout crowds to the new facility.
“The game against Grambling would have been a sellout. The game against UAB would have been a sellout. The same against Troy would have been a sellout,” Erdmann said.
The financial strain extends well beyond the university’s own books. Restaurants and hotels near the South Alabama campus had been counting on the new stadium to draw larger crowds, visiting fans and weekend travelers into their businesses this fall. With tailgating scaled back and out-of-town crowds unlikely to materialize in normal numbers, many of those nearby businesses are bracing for a slower season as well.
“It’s going to limit exposure. It’s going to limit pedestrian and vehicle traffic,” Erdmann said, acknowledging the ripple effect the reduced attendance is expected to have on the surrounding area.
Despite the setback, Erdmann struck an optimistic tone about the stadium’s future once public health conditions allow for a return to normal capacity. “The end of that tunnel, we will get to the other side of this. When we do get to the other side of this, then the capabilities of Hancock Whitney Stadium will be on full display to everyone,” he said.
University officials have not yet finalized exact attendance figures for the season, and any plan will likely depend on guidance from local and state health officials as the pandemic evolves. South Alabama’s athletic department, like those at colleges and universities across the country, has had to weigh public health guidance against the financial realities of operating a major athletics program without the ticket and concession revenue that full stadiums typically generate.
The stadium itself, a long-anticipated project for the university and the surrounding Mobile community, represents a significant investment in South Alabama’s athletic infrastructure. Its opening season was expected to be a showcase moment for the program and a boost for local businesses that serve game-day crowds. Instead, the 2020 season will serve as a test of how college athletics departments adapt financially to operating under public health restrictions.